1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital display type electronic watch. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improvement in a digital display type electronic watch capable of displaying the current time and date information.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical conventional digital display type electronic watch comprises six or four digit display positions each adapted for displaying a selected numeral, such that the current time information is displayed. Such six digit display positions are usually used such that the most significant two digit positions are allotted to indicate hour information, the middle significant two digit positions are allotted to indicate minute information and the least significant two digit positions are allotted to indicate second information. Similarly, such four digit positions are typically used such that the more significant two digit positions are allotted to indicate hour information and the less significant two digit positions are allotted to indicate minute information.
A digital display type electronic watch capable of displaying the current time and date information has also been proposed and put in practical use. A typical digital display type electronic watch adapted for displaying the current time and date information is structured such that extra digit display positions are provided for display of the current date information such as the month and the day of the week apart from the digit display positions for display of the current time information such as the hour, minute and second. Typically the current date information concerning the month and the day of the week is indicated by abbreviations of the alphabet characters comprising a combination of two or three alphabet characters. Such characters can be displayed through selective energization of an arrangement of a plurality of segments in each of the display digit positions provided apart from the digit display positions for displays of the current time information. Such an arrangement of segments may comprise a plurality of segments arranged in the form of cross-in-square or cross-and-diagonal-cross in square. Provision of such extra digit display positions only for display of the current date information concerning the month or the day of the week requires an increased display area, which degrades the space factor of the display of a small sized digital display type electronic watch, such as a digital display type electronic wrist watch. Thus it is desired that an improved digital display type electronic watch is provided which is capable of displaying the current time information such as the hour, minute and the like in numeral characters and the current date information concerning at least the day of the week and preferably the month as well in alphabet characters in a small display area without reducing the size of the characters for displaying such information concerning the current date as well as the current time. The present invention achieves that purpose.